Leda and the Swan Silver Cigarette Case

A beautiful antique German solid Silver Cigarette Case with an enamel image on the front cover. This image shows a woman gazing at three lush pink roses with her translucent gown dra...

Rectangular desk cigarette case with rounded corners in sterling silver 925/1000 gold plated with fine hand-painted fire-enameled miniature depicting a romantic couple in Art Nouveau...

Shaped rectangular pocket cigarette case in 925/1000 sterling silver with translucent fired enamels on guillochè with Art Deco style geometric de...

A parcel gilt samorodok silver cigarette case by Vladimir Gordon S.t Petersburg, with green stone, c.1900 Embossed signature.. A Fine quality Russian silver cigarette case. Reticul...

Cigarette case in the shape of a packet of long cigarettes in 925/1000 sterling silver with black fired enamel in Art Deco style, early 1900s. With lost hinge, i.e. semi-invisible. ...

Rectangular table box in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent two-tone striped fired enamel on guillochè and hand-engraved ornament. Late Empire Napoleon III style. ...

Rectangular table cigarette box in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamels on guillochè and fine miniature hand painted...

Rectangular table cigarette case with rounded corners in sterling silver 925/1000 gold plated with beautiful miniature fire enamelled and hand painted by the painter Beatrice Mellana reproducing a "still life" by the Flemish painter Willem Claes Heda. Dimensions cm. 5.7 x 9 x 1.7. Weight gr. 174. Designed by Franco Salimbeni in 1969 and manufactured in Florence in numerous specimens with various subjects and different colors, in the headquarters of the Salimbeni Company with completely manual execution by artisan artists with thick slab and large reinforcements suitable for withstanding numerous enamelled firings at about 800° C. Miniature is a very ancient technique which consists of painting works in small proportions. It was born for the decoration of the first letter of the paragraph of the books. Over the years, however, this technique is refined and enriched, then moving on to precious personal items. Hand-painted miniatures can be done with multiple different techniques. The most important that we use on our articles are of three kinds: 1) Fire enamel. 2) Water tempera on an ivory plate. 3) Painted on mother-of-pearl. Fire enameled miniatures: On a first layer of enamel generally white or very clear or even transparent suitably liquefied at a temperature of about 750 ° C, the chosen subject is painted using miniature colors which are as many colored crystals, ground and reduced to a very fine, almost impalpable powder washed and purified in distilled water with the addition of small quantities of deoxidizing acids which, diluted with essential oils (usually essential oil of solder), can be mixed to form a palette of colors. With very fine sable hair brushes you draw the subject starting from the perimeter and then gradually adding various layers of color. It is necessary to carry out various firings very often so that the colors harden and are not absorbed by the underlying glaze as, during the subsequent firings at 750 ° C, during liquefaction, it would spread irremediably. Hence the need to form the painting a little at a time, cooking it numerous times. Therefore it is necessary to proceed with numerous retouching, often overlapping different colors that only the painter's experience knows. A beautiful miniature needs from 20 to over 50 firings and is finished when the painter deems he does not have to further intervene. Some colors must have darker tones than others because then, by superimposing the transparent enamel placed at the end of the miniature, they fade. This transparent layer, called “fondant” in jargon, must be smoothed and polished like all other translucent enamel colors. The miniatures with water tempera colors are painted on real ivory...

A set of two Italian Sterling silver cigarette cases from the 19th and 20th century. They have hand-stamped details and are engraved with flowers and scrolling acanthus. One of them ...

A gorgeous Antique solid Silver Cigarette Case with an Enamel Image on the front cover. This Image shows a nude woman with long brown hair surrounded by a cresting wave in the ocean....